Transit police

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.(February 2012)

Because policing is a provincial responsibility, police powers vary in different jurisdictions. With the exception of South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority Police Service, who have full policing powers within the province of British Columbia, urban transit police forces are special constabularies or by-law enforcement officers with limited policing powers.

However, the structure of institutions can be vary from city to city. For example, cities like Tianjin and Chengdu might have a joint public transportation force of division level, operates on all the taxis, bus routes, coaches, rapid transit and ferry lines as well as transportation hubs inside city limit; while Chongqing and Xi'an[9] have tighter transit cop brigades focused exclusively on protecting the mass transit lines. Again, all these agencies are supervised by the PSBs of higher level.

In The Netherlands, all public transport companies providing public service have their own enforcement officers, these officers often have the BOA status (special investigation officer)and limited police powers (use of force,arrest and use of handcuffs) the main task of these officers is fare enforcement en securing the safety of the public and employees within the transport vehicles.

The city of Amsterdam, is the only municipality in the Netherlands which operates it´s own transit enforcement department, the "Veiligheidsteam openbaar vervoer" (Safety team public transport) cooperates with the Amsterdam police in maintaining public order within the public transport, stations an hubs within the city limits, prevent or stop crimes, public assistance, issuing transit information and spotting suspicious behavior. Their uniforms are similar to that of police officers (police style hat, yellow hi visibility jacket and trousers with side striping the only difference with the uniform of a police officer is that the trouser and hat color are dark grey whereas the police uses navy blue. These enforcement officers are employed by the city whereas the police officers are employed by the national police. Enforcement officers are equipped with handcuffs and a short police baton and have limited police powers like the use of force,making arrests, detaining people and issuing fines. The city of Amsterdam is currently looking into the possibility to equip the officers with a can of pepperspray, this will probably be in mid 2014.